First Playthrough of Mass Effect (Part 2)

Sometimes I think what I want is Mass Effect: The Laserdisc game. I love the story and I love the Codex entries. Just getting completely engrossed in the Mass Effect world. What I don’t enjoy is the fighting. This isn’t because I’m bad at it. My cover-based shooter noob days are long behind me with Uncharted 1. But the story’s so awesome and sometimes I have to wait hours between story beats while I fight my way through the Geth. That gets old pretty quickly.

reminder: this game came out a long time ago, so I’m assuming spoilers are ok

When I last wrote about my playthrough of Mass Effect, I was on the Citadel. While there I eventually met Wrex, a Krogan who joins Shepard’s group. He’s a fun character to have around because of his attitude and his sarcasm. I also learned about Krogan history, which was pretty messed up. Quick recap: some species needed a great army so they saw the blood-thirsty Krogan civilization. They bring the Krogans up to the space age and use them as their army. Eventually the Krogans rebel against this and want their own sovereignty. The species that advanced them isn’t having that so they fight. The Krogans being an awesome army are decimating this other species until a third species develops a genetic virus making it so that only 1/1000 Krogan pregnancies survives. So they’re in decline.

I was surprised that Saren was actually stripped of his Spectre status this early in the game. I thought the council would keep disbelieving me and I’d have to fight someone with his respect and diplomatic status. I also learn that he wasn’t to bring back the Reepers who happened to be the special the eliminated the Protheans. The Protheans, remember, are the species that invented all the tech that everyone in the universe uses. No one has yet reached that level of advanced tech. So if the Protheans died, what hope do the rest of us have? However, since they mysteriously disappeared after destroying the Protheans, no one even believes they ever existed.

In my last review, I wondered whether there would be space religion. Yup! There was some brain/jellyfish thing that was trying to spread the gospel of the Protheans.

Eventually I finished all the missions and side missions and was given my control of the ship. I went to the planet that had Liara on it. It was really the best one to go to from the first three I was told about because you get a while to play with the car before you have to worry about fighting.

Then I went to the planet with the sentient plant that controls everyone. Got some more good story beats and some fighting. Halfway through that fighting, I realized that I could modify my guns with different abilities. Eventually I got some Prothean ancestral memories transferred to me so I could understand the other Prothean data in my head. That eventually led to some flirting by Liara.

This leads me to my current complaint/annoyance. I wish there was some way to mark off items I’ve already discussed with people. Everyone always talks about how part of the fun of Mass Effect is going around your ship and talking to the crew between missions. So I want to know when I go talk to Joker that asking him about the ship is going to lead to the same conversation I’ve had three times now. Or whether it’s worth talking to him anymore. Other than that, I’m really enjoying the game. I look forward to seeing what happens on the next planet.